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Experts dismiss doctor's cancer claims

Cancer specialists question some of the success stories claimed by Stanislaw Burzynski and his patients, saying some were misdiagnosed or benefited from conventional treatments before seeing Burzynski.

Experts dismiss doctor's cancer claims

Cancer specialists question some of the success stories claimed by Stanislaw Burzynski and his patients, saying some were misdiagnosed or benefited from conventional treatments before seeing him.

A sign whose letters were rearranged by patients years ago to read "hope exists" remains at the clinic of doctor Stanislaw Burzynski. He has treated patients with experimental, unapproved cancer drugs since the 1970s.(Photo: Michael Stravato for USA TODAY)

"I went to see a doctor at UCLA, and he told me I was going to die of this disease," says Siegel, 63, of Ventura, Calif. "He is curing cancer. I am living proof."

Yet independent oncologists say that appearances can be deceiving, and that patients shouldn't be too quick to credit Burzynski. Experts say there are several reasons to be skeptical of Burzynski's claims.

• Burzynski often relies on anecdotes, which don't tell the full story.

Individual success stories can be misleading, said Arthur Caplan, a professor and head of the division of bioethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. For every patient who says he was cured, there could be many more who aren't around to speak up, because they died or were harmed.

When doctors look for reasons why a patient does well on a therapy, they look for the most plausible explanation, said Jan Buckner, a professor and chairman of oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Burzynski's therapies have never been proven effective in a definitive clinical trial, according to the National Cancer Institute.

• Burzynski's patients may have been misdiagnosed.

"When I hear a story that is way out of the norm, the first question I ask is, 'OK, is the diagnosis even correct?' " Buckner said. "If the diagnosis wasn't right to start with, it doesn't matter what the treatment was."

Brain tumors are notoriously difficult to diagnose, Buckner says. When dealing with rare brain cancer, doctors may disagree about how to interpret imaging results up to 40% of the time. He notes that it's possible to mistake a benign tumor with a malignant one. So it's possible, Buckner said, that some of Burzynski's miracle patients never had a malignant tumor at all.

• Burzynski's patients may have been cured by previous therapy.

A look at a doctor's cancer claims.(Photo: Jerry Mosemak, USA TODAY)

Many of Burzynski's patients are terminally ill and have had one or more previous types of conventional cancer care — surgery, radiation or chemotherapy — before they see him.

To avoid such confusions, researchers typically require patients to wait before starting a new treatment, Adamson says.

FDA inspections, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, show that Burzynski has repeatedly failed to follow that basic practice.

He has allowed patients to move straight from conventional therapy into his trials, according to inspections from 2001 and 2013. In one case last year, Burzynski allowed a patient to begin antineoplastons the day after finishing chemotherapy, according to FDA inspections.

In another case in 1998, a patient received both radiation and antineoplastons at the same time, according to a 2001 FDA inspection.

In an interview, Burzynski brushed off criticism, describing his detractors as "competitors who want to put us out of business."

"I don't read this trash," Burzynski said. "I have more important work to do."